Just home from a wonderful day with fellow Alembicians! Met so many wonderful people - Harold - you sounded amazing (Stanley would have loved it!), Marc- wonderful player (regards to Bayside), Frank from Erie - hoping to see you again - nice vocals, Mike P - plays amazing 6 string as well as drums - really nice, Matt - loved your distillate. Michael from Phil Jones - you are one of the most brilliantly melodic players I've heard. So many wonderful people - we need to do this more often. The gentlemen pictured top and center above - loved your playing on Cut My Hair and Breakdown. Thanks so much for the day, Todd Harris - Northort, NY

My heart goes out to all the wonderful people/players I met today. I will treasure the day forever can't wait till the next time. A special thanks to Debbie for all the pix and Harold and Mike for hooking everything up and making sure everybody had a great time etc.etc, A very big thanks to the other two Mikes for shleppng and demoing PHIL JONES AMPS and EBS pedals. Thank you Frank for letting me play those AWESOME 6 strings, Pace you rock man!! Great meeting everyone God Bless.

What a great day! I hope everyone had as good a time as I did. It felt like being with old friends. Where else can you go and meet people for the first time and they tell you to go ahead and play their prized instruments without a second thought. Harold and Mike did a great job of setting things up and we all know what a thankless job that is. Harolds girlfriend was also nice enough to take all the photos and begin posting them as fast as she could get them to load. I think she was even posting on the ride home! With all the post's that have come and gone recently, I feel like this is what our gathering of like minded musicians is all about. You could feel the care and admiration we all shared for the room full of beatiful basses and guitars. Mike even broke out his pedal steel (that thing sounds awesome). All I can say to the rest of the club is, don't wait to do these gatherings. Set a date and let the rest happen. If someone can't make it this time,hopefully they can make the next one.

Great gathering! So many beautiful Alembics (have to mention all the Series and that amazing Mathew's full mahogany Distillate), but I was grabbed by the Fretless Europa and got curious about the "Jazz" laying down at middle of all basses pic. Can we have some more photos?

That "Jazz" is mine. Chambered Mahogany w/Flame Koa top. Anniversary Electronics w/Axy in neck position and Fatboy at bridge. My '77 Bird's Eye Maple S1 acccompanied us along the way. Many Thanks to those who made a special effort to compliment it's tone and clarity, especially within the mix. Special Thanks to Harold and Deb, whose photos have been posted on the site. We have a disc coming which will be fun too. Harold made super human efforts to be a main organizer in this event

Yo, Another Huge Thanks to Everyone involved in the Gathering, most especially Harold, Debbie, and all the mysterious faces behind the whole works- you know who I'm talking about!

My fondest regards to Harold, Debbie, Todd, Greg, Mike (Pace), Mike A. (Phil Jones), Mike K. (boy, there were alot of Mikes, there, lol), Barry, Matthew, Flax, Marc, and Pete. If I missed anyone, my apologies- I was in that Nirvana like state you can only attain from touching so many Alembics and meeting and jamming with their even more awesome owners!!!

You guys were all awesome!

Barry- it was killer trading licks with you and Mike A. I've had very few chances to jam with one other 6 string player, let alone 2!!! And your Spoilers weren't too shabby, either!

Pete, your 5 string SII was sick- I liked what you were doing, when you picked up Marc's SI. I hope you dug getting to hear your bass out in the audience, for once!

Mike P- Pace- it was great that you were able (and willing!) to sit in on drums- you did a fantastic job- I wish we would've gotten to hear more of your bass playing, but we had you so busy behind the drums, you hardly had a chance to rest!

Marc, you had a killer tone, with that beautiful Series I of yours- and yes, it did remind me of Jack Casady, for sure. And I loved your Jazz/Alembic, it was so cool, it was ridiculous!

Greg, your SCSD and SII were both beautiful beyond description, and your playing was just as good!

Flax- you're larger than life, and twice as nice (oh, shit, I don't think you wanted people to know that!). I dug jamming with you- and you're absolutely right- F*#k the pocket!

Todd- your vocals were the awesome ones- I can't sing for shit, I'm just good at faking it! I hope OTiS can play with the Bayside Bandits, sometime soon! And the tone of that Series I, forget about it. It was hard not to just stare at it and drool!

Harold, you're the Man! I loved that Series II of yours and especially how you played it- you rocked!

And Debbie- your pictures (and the snacks you brought...) were awesome! You were definitely a huge help to Harold and his madness and scheming up this Gathering! How's that saying go? Behind every good bass player, there's an awesome woman?

Boys, she made a mean Vodka and Tonic- I drank 2 at the Hotel, the night before... sorry you missed that!

As was said earlier, where else can you walk into a room of strangers and someone hand you their most prized possession awaiting your opinion? While the instruments were great, meeting our members was even better. It was a great day and time flew. I hope that we do it again, and those that couldn't come this time will be able to join us next time. I think that all of us who participated would gladly do it again.

I'm glad everything worked out! But I'm pissed that I couldn't get there due to booking a gig. (I just used my Double bass for the entire gig though and my band members really enjoyed that!)I hope that I can get to the next Jersey Gathering because it is so close to where I now live. GREAT PHOTOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If it were desirable and a better location could not be found, I would offer my house in Norhtport Long Island for the meet - I have a 20x12 living room which is empty except for a PA, drum kit, 2 bass amps and 2 guitar amps - it's an hour out of Manhattan and just east of Huntington. Todd